TUESDAY, DEC. 5, 2017

TRANSITIONS -- The Outdoors Blog is evolving. After nearly 41 years as Outdoors editor at The Spokesman-Review, Rich Landers has officially retired. He will continue writing occasionally as an Outdoors correspondent, but the reins of the department and Outdoor coverage have been handed to the...

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 29, 2017

GRANTS -- The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) is seeking volunteers to help evaluate proposals for grants that have funded prized land acquisitions for wildlife and trails and facilities across the state. RCO is looking to fill vacancies on three advisory committees that...

TUESDAY, NOV. 21, 2017

WILDLIFE -- A federal court has blocked thousands of domestic sheep from being released to graze in eastern Idaho where environmental groups say they jeopardize a small herd of bighorn sheep with deadly viruses, the Associated Press reports. U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale on Monday...

HUNTING -- The discovery of chronic wasting disease in free-ranging deer in Montana this fall means restrictions for sportsmen who come from CWD-free states to hunt deer, elk or moose there. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has filed an emergency rule that adds...

MONDAY, NOV. 20, 2017

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT -- Two people from Spokane have been appointed to a 20-member advisory committee to help the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife a with strategic planning, development of legislative proposals and future budget requests. David Cloe of the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council and...

FRIDAY, NOV. 17, 2017

HUNTING -- The last of Washington's fall general seasons for hunting wild turkey starts Monday, Nov. 20, and runs through Dec. 15 in Game Management Units 105-154 and units 162-186. The season is designed to reduce the number of birds congregated on lowland areas for...

THURSDAY, NOV. 16, 2017

POACHING -- A Spokane man and his twin brother have been charged with 16 crimes involved with the illegal killing of eight bull elk in what Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials describe as years of poaching activity on a Fergus County ranch. James Stephen...

ENDANGERED SPECIES -- An Arizona-based environmental group is suing the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for access to some public records on wolf deaths in the state. The Center for Biological Diversity is seeking records about the killing of a wolf from the Smackout...

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15, 2017

PREDATORS -- Oregon has posted an online quiz to help people – especially hunters – bone up on telling the difference between wolves and coyotes. The quiz found at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website shows photos of the animals at various ages....

TUESDAY, NOV. 14, 2017

POACHING -- Public sentiment is clearly behind the landowner who used his tractor to, shall we say, immobilize the pickup of elk poachers who were trespassing. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police are hesitant to say that's the proper way to respond. There could...

MONDAY, NOV. 13, 2017

THREATENED SPECIES -- Federal scientists and land managers who’ve been crafting strategies to protect a ground-dwelling bird’s habitat across the American West for nearly two decades are going back to the drawing board under a new Trump administration edict to reassess existing plans condemned by...

THURSDAY, NOV. 9, 2017

ENDANGERED SPECIES -- A rancher has killed an adult female gray wolf as it was caught in the act of attacking livestock on private grazing grounds in northern Ferry County. The livestock producer reported the incident on Oct. 27, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife...

TUESDAY, NOV. 7, 2017

HUNTING -- Perhaps the potential for repelling a grizzly attack with a can of bear spray hadn't been fully explored, until this.... An elk hunter near Livingston, Montana, was able to deploy bear spray at a charging bear, but the nozzle of the spray got...

HUNTING -- While bird hunting along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, a sportsman must consider being loaded for bear as well as pheasant. On Saturday near Pendroy, a pheasant hunter shot and killed a grizzly bear that charged him after it was surprised by the hunter’s...

MONDAY, NOV. 6, 2017

PREDATORS -- An elk hunter got the benefit of the doubt for killing a wolf in self-defense in northeastern Oregon last month, the first time that’s happened since the predator began migrating to the state in the late 1990s, state police said Thursday. The story...

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25, 2017

HUNTING -- I've killed an elk near a road where it could be loaded in a pickup exactly zero times in my hunting career. Every one had to be quartered or the meat removed from the bone in the field to be hauled by a...

FRIDAY, OCT. 20, 2017

BIRDNG – A federal plan to let hunters shoot trumpeter swans has drawn fire from some of the people who toiled to bring the majestic white birds back from the brink of extinction. Here's the story from the Associted Press out of Minnesota: Trumpeter swans,...

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 11, 2017

HUNTING -- Big-game hunters heading out this week can help wildlife managers in Idaho and Washington collect valuable information about deer and elk populations by taking a few minutes to stop at a hunter check station if they pass one on their way home. Idaho...

HUNTING -- Fall turkey hunters must wear a hunter orange vest or clothing during the portion of their season that corresponds with any modern rifle big-game seasons. Without a formal announcement, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has posted online an emergency rule a...

MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2017

HUNTING -- Pre-season scouting has left me with some serious doubts about the prospects for a successful elk hunt. The area I've been hunting in the Blue Mountains has been hit hard by logging in recent years. That was OK for awhile, but in the...

THURSDAY, OCT. 5, 2017

HUNTING -- Shooting ranges require users to have hearing protection. But many of the shooters who are honing their shotgunning skills at the skeet range this week or zeroing in their deer rifles will head into the fields or forest on opening day with nothing...

TUESDAY, OCT. 3, 2017

WILDLIFE – Researchers in a five-year study of moose in Eastern Washington are asking the public to report any moose they see to help get more data on their preferred habitat. Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists are especially interested in reports from people who...

FRIDAY, SEPT. 29, 2017

HUNTING – A man shot and killed a grizzly bear after it ran out of some brush and bit his adult son’s arm, Montana wildlife authorities say. The father and son were hunting black bears near the Hungry Horse Reservoir on Sunday when the bear...

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 2017

HUNTING – Hunters can zero-in their rifles before the general hunting seasons at the annual Sight-In Days at the Spokane Rifle Club. Club facilities along the Spokane River downstream from the Bowl and Pitcher will be open to nonmembers starting Friday and Saturday from 10...